Alright, let's go back to 1 Peter
5. Now, Peter had been speaking here
to the elder, to the pastor, in the first five verses. And
the essence of what he's saying is, humble yourself and submit
to the chief shepherd. you are an under-shepherd, submit
to the chief-shepherd. And so that is why it begins
in verse 5 with this word, likewise. Likewise ye younger submit yourselves
unto the elder. Pastors submit to the shepherd,
chief-shepherd, the younger submit to the pastor and to the elder
in faith. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another. All of you be subject, be in
submission one to another. The key to harmony amongst believers,
and I believe this is why we've had the harmony we've had in
this congregation. The key to harmony amongst believers
is submission. It's being subject one to another. True God-given humility loves
my brother. and prefers my brother have the
honor rather than myself. True humility esteems my brother
better than myself. That's why. Romans 12.10 says,
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in
honor preferring one another. Preferring the other to have
the honor. Let nothing be done through strife
or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other
better than themselves. Let's do it your way. I think
your way is the better way. As preferring the other to have
the honor. You mean in just simple things
like that? In everything. In everything. We have to be
brought to esteem not only our brother's way to be the best
way, but God's way. We have to be brought there first.
If we truly believe ourselves to be the chief of sinners, that's what we'll do. It's not
difficult when you see yourself as the worst to prefer somebody
else better. Submission to my brother is first
submission to God. Submission to Christ. It's the
only way I can submit to a brother. It's the only true submission
that's done in faith. But until I've been given a holy
reverence, a holy fear of God, I can't submit to a brother.
Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. That's
how we have to. We have to have a reverence for
God to submit to one another in the fear of God. Now if we
really believe it's God which worketh in you both to will and
to do of His good pleasure. If we believe that, then in that
fear of God, in that reverence for God, we can submit ourselves
one to another. Now I want to look here first
at a call to humility. How do you submit one to another? First of all, there's a call
to humility. And then there's a call to faith.
And then thirdly, there's a call to vigilance. And then fourthly,
a call to patience. First of all, the Spirit of God
calls us to humility. There can't be any submission
without humility. He says, verse 5, and be clothed
with humility. Be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud and
giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time. Casting all your care upon Him,
for he careth for you. Verse 5, he says, be clothed
with humility. Look back there at 1 Peter 3, verse 3. He is talking about
humility being like clothing. He says, he is speaking to the
woman here about the plaiting the hair and the wearing of gold
and that part applies to a woman, but this hidden man of the heart
applies to all of us. Look here, verse 3, who's adorning? He's showing us what is adorning,
what's beautiful. Let it not be that outward adorning
of plaiting the hair and wearing of gold or putting on of apparel.
He's not forbidding you to look nice. He's just saying don't
make that to be what you think makes you pretty. He says in
verse 4, but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which
is not corruptible. even the ornament of a meek and
a quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. All God's elect shall be born
again of the Holy Spirit. That shall happen. But that's
a must if we would have this humility. We have to be born
again of the Holy Spirit of God and given a new heart. This is
not what we have by nature. We don't have anything like this
by nature. And by nature, a person can start
trying to put on what looks like humility, but they can only do
it for so long. And sooner or later, that cork
is going to bust out of the bottle. When the Spirit of God has created
a new heart, it's not corruptible. It's born of incorruptible seed. It's a meek and quiet spirit. A meek and a quiet spirit, which
in the sight of God, God looks on the heart. And in the sight
of God, it's that inward man of the heart which is of great
price. God's telling us what is beautiful
to Him. It's not the outward. It's not
the outward. Most of what you see in religion
is these outward works and this running to and fro. It's just
the outward plaiting of the hair and gold bangles and all these
different outward garments of apparel. But he says what God's
looking on and what he sees as beautiful is the hidden man of
the heart. So he says to us in Colossians
3.12, Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved,
bowels of mercies, mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness,
longsuffering, And here is why, Peter says here in 1 Peter 5,
he says, For God resisteth the proud. God resisteth the proud
and gives grace to the humble. And we are all proud sinners
by nature. We come into this world proud
sinners. We are proud of face. God hates
a proud look. We are proud of face. We are
proud of race. That's what you see going on mostly in our country
is pride of race. Pride of place and pride of grace. And that's the worst of all,
pride of grace. Pride of grace. False humility. False humility. That's an external
modification of the body. An external thing. Our sinful
nature loves to mortify the body. You know, it's not hard to get
a man to do that. Our sin nature loves to do that.
To mortify the body so men can see it. And it loves when men
see it and call it saintly. But it's a disguise. If God's
not created this hidden man of the heart, it's a disguise. It's
a posture. It's a ceremony. Never engage
in religious posture to be seen of men. Our Lord warned
us of that about praying to be seen of men. He warned us of
that. Beware of religious posture of
an outward form because that is going to get you self applause
and that is what it is done for. That is to reward Christ said.
Self-applause. Boy, can't he pray pretty? Self-righteousness. If I'm conscious
of my humility, if I'm conscious I'm doing a religious work and
it's coming into my thoughts that I'm conscious of this, that
people are going to be seeing me do it. It's not humility. It's not humility. Paul spoke
of another kind of counterfeit. That's one counterfeit. Another
one he called a voluntary humility. It goes like this. I would come
to God, but I'm just not worthy to come to God. I'm too much
of a sinner. That's nothing but pride. That's
all that is. I'm not good enough to be saved.
I'm not worthy to come to the Lord's table. Peter's writing this. And we
know he was in pride when he did this. But it sounded like
this. You won't ever wash my feet.
I'm not going to let my Lord stoop down to my feet and wash
my feet. It's pride. It's pride. Making our own unworthiness a
condition for salvation. When salvation is a free gift
of God's grace. Pride will not submit to God. Pride will not submit to Christ. Pride won't submit to brethren.
I will not have this man reign over me, Christ said. He said
that's what the that parable, that's what they said, and he's
describing the scribes and the Pharisee, and that's what they
were saying in their heart. I will not have this man, Christ
Jesus, reign over me. Pride will not confess sins,
won't confess wrongs. Pride will justify self and boast
of self. Pride will not bear injury. Pride is such a deceitful thing
that we can think that we're humble and be proud
of it. A man can be proud of his so-called
humility. That's how deceitful this thing
of pride is. And really think he's being humble
while he's proud of it. God alone can bring us down from
pride. We can't do it ourselves. God
alone brings His people down, and He does it one way, by revealing
Himself in His holiness to His child. That's what's going to
create humility. Look at Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah 6 and verse 1. Isaiah
said, In the year that King Uzziah died, King Uzziah was Isaiah's
mentor. He was the one that he looked
up to that helped him. He was his mentor. And Uzziah
became lifted up in pride. After his kingdom prospered,
he became lifted up in pride and he decided he'd just bypass
the priest. He didn't need a priest anymore.
He'd just go in and burn incense himself. And while he's in there
with that golden censer in his hand, God made him break out
with leprosy. And they had to separate him
out from everybody and he died. And Isaiah says, in that year
the king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne. Sometimes God has to remove our
mentors and bring us into serious, serious affliction to make us
see His holiness. That He's the one running everything.
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up. That's where
he saw King Uzziah. Now he don't see him there. He
sees the Lord. And his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims
and one had six wings. And here's what they did. With
two they covered their feet. That's true humility. They covered
their face and they covered their feet and with two they did fly.
And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that
cried. And the house was filled with
smoke. And then said I, woe is me. That's real humility right there.
Woe is me, for I'm undone. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean
lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Acts chapter
9. Apostle Paul, he was being proud
in his flesh. this big lawmonger, he's obeyed
the law outwardly and done all these things, and now he's got
letters and he's on his way to Damascus and he's going to kill
God's people. And it says, verse 1, And Saul,
yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples
of the Lord, verse 3, And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus,
and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.
And he fell to the earth. And he heard a voice saying unto
him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art
thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. Here is humility. And he trembling
and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Totally
different man. Totally different man. He says,
And the Lord said unto him, Arise, go into the city, and it shall
be told thee what thou must do. Verse 8 says at the end, They
led him by the hand, and brought him to Damascus. And he was three
days without sight, neither did he eat nor drink. Boy, that's
a different picture than how he was going. He was going, he
was proud, he was marching, he had his whole train of people,
and he was going down there with his letters and going to kill
God's people. When Christ got through with him, he's in the
dust, he's blind, he's asking him, Lord, what will you have
me to do? God gives grace to humble, to humble. Isaiah 57, verse 15, Thus saith
the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy,
I dwell in the high and holy place. With him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit. That is the high and holy place
when our Lord is there. the contrite, broken, humble
spirit. I do it to revive the spirit
of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite ones, he
said. He said, to this man will I look.
Even to him that is of a poor and of a contrite spirit and
trembleth at my word. But he has to bring us there.
He has to bring us to have that holy fear, that reverence to
really see that Christ is right here in front of me. He's right
there with you. Not hiding anything. The darkness
don't cover Him up. Don't cover His eyes. He's with
you. And He's holy. And for His child,
it's a heart reference. He wants to obey the Redeemer. He wants to obey His Lord. He
doesn't want to offend Him. When He creates this humble heart,
that's when we'll humbly submit to God's mighty hand. and wait
on God to exalt us. He says in verse 6, 1 Peter 5
verse 6, Humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God,
that He may exalt you in due time. God's hand is the only
mighty hand. His hand is the only mighty hand.
Remember Isaiah said His hand is mighty to hold all the waters
in the hollow of His hand. He is a mighty hand. Mighty to
establish His own righteousness without looking to mere you.
Mighty to satisfy His own justice without looking to a sinner.
He is mighty to bring down the proud rebel. Bring him down to
the dust. He had no problem knocking Paul
off his high horse. He is mighty to provide all provision
for His people. Everything is His. And He rules
everything. And He's able to provide for
His church. He's got a mighty hand. He's
able to bring down and destroy all His enemies. There's not
an enemy one that our Lord will not, in the end, completely,
totally destroy. He's mighty to resist His proud
children. He's mighty to give more grace
to humble. This is the mighty hand of God.
He's mighty to exalt you in due time. Due time is God's time. And this is what our pride is
all about right here. This is what it's all about.
God doesn't operate on our timetable. We have to wait on God. Pride
wants to be exalted in our time. What do you mean by exalted?
He wants to exalt self out of our sins. He wants to exalt self out of
the trial. We just always have to put our
hand to it. I'm going to make it better and
it always ends up worse. The Lord said you put your hand
to it, you've polluted it. We want to exalt ourselves over
others. And we want to do it all in our
time. Our time. But when God gives
us humility, He is going to make His child submit under God's
mighty hand and wait for God to exalt you in God's time. Whatever it is, whether it's
out of your unbelief into faith, He's going to have to do that.
He's going to do it in His time. Whether it's exalting Christ
before you so that you can behold Him, He's going to have to do
that in His time. Or if it's a trial, and we just don't want
to be in that trial. Nobody likes to suffer. But we
try our best to exalt ourselves out of that before it's time. And we exalt ourselves over others. But our God and our Lord Jesus
Christ, He exalts in His time. And when He does, when He gives
you this humility of heart, He brings you to wait on Him to
do the exalting in His time. He gives you a resignation of
your will to His will. To wait on Him. No flesh of glory
in His presence, He said. Not any. He said the Lord alone
shall be exalted in that day. You remember Aaron. Aaron's two
sons tried to approach God in their own way. And God killed
them. Both of them. They had to drag
those boys out of the temple, tabernacle. And the scripture says Moses
was sent to him. Just a man sitting there talking
to him. It's just a brother talking to him. He's sent by God to preach
the gospel. This man just watched his children
die at the hand of God. And here comes God's messenger,
closest thing he's got to getting to God, Moses. And here comes
Moses and he says to Aaron, this is that the Lord spake. This
is what the Lord was talking about. He said, I will be sanctified
in them that come near me. And before all the people, I
will be glorified. What they did didn't sanctify
God. It didn't put God high and lift it up. It drew attention
to them. It lifted them up. It exalted
them. And after Moses told Aaron that,
I mean, he's still sitting there, the blood's still fresh, where
they drug those boys out of the tabernacle. And Aaron held his
peace. He didn't say a word. Samuel came to Eli, and he had
all that bad news he had to tell Eli, because Eli's sons had run
wild at the tabernacle, at the temple, and the Lord was going
to punish them. And he said, now the priesthood
is about to leave your house, Eli. God is going to kill your
sons, He is going to take the priesthood from you, it won't
even be in your family anymore. And he said, it's the Lord, let
him do what seemeth him good. So calling us to submission here,
he first calls us to humility. Got to be brought down. Got to
be brought down. Secondly, here's a call to faith.
He says, and be sure to get this now, because true humility, true
submission to God's hand, true waiting on God involves faith
in Christ. He says in verse 7, casting all
your care upon Him, for He careth for you. Beholding God's holiness
and beholding it manifest in Christ and Him crucified, beholding
that God would not even spare His own Son. When you behold His holiness,
you begin to behold your utter sinfulness. If God did that to His Son, when
sin was found on His Son, look at me, I'm such a sinner, I've
never done anything righteous. I've never breathed a righteous
breath. What would God do to me? He used
to bring you down to behold your own sinfulness and behold your
own ignorance. And you behold your own total
insufficiency. Am I sufficient for anything? God brings you there and gives
you faith. You cast all your care on Christ. The care of your eternal soul,
you cast it into Christ's hand. All your care. We see it in the
publican. This is what it looked like.
He wouldn't lift his eyes to heaven. He smote upon his breast
and cried, ìLord, be merciful to me, a sinner.î Thatís it. Repentance and faith are two
sides of the same coin. He wouldnít even lift his eyes
to heaven. Smote on his breast where the
heart of the problem was and cried, ìFor mercy!î Itís not
only what God brings us to do in conversion though. It is what
God brings us to do in every trial, if we are His. This is
what He brings His child to do. He makes us see our insufficiency,
makes us see our sinfulness, makes us see His holiness, makes
us see Christ as wisdom, makes us see Him as righteousness and
sanctification, makes us see Him as all. And every trial serves
that purpose. We are going to cast our care
on Christ, all of it. All of it. That's why the Lord
told Peter when he was in that trial, He said, when you're converted,
it's a conversion all over again. When you're converted, strengthen
your brethren. That's what Peter's doing for
us right here. He's strengthening us, his brethren, by telling
us what he learned. Lord, they might offend you,
but I want pride. And He said, the devil's desired
you that he might sift you as wheat. And Peter, the only reason
your faith will not fail is because I'm interceding for you. But
I'm going to use this, Peter, to bring you down from this pride.
I'm going to bring you to cast all your care on me. All your
care on me. Truly, we should always be casting our
care on Christ. Always. casting all your care
upon Him for He careth for you. Those are two different words
translated care. The Greek word, the first word
is concerns and worries and anxiety. It's the load that's burdening
you. It's the load that wears you
out, makes you exhausted. The second word there is used
in reverence to God as care of a watchful shepherd. Our care of anxiety, our care,
our worry and our anxiety and God's care are two very different
things. Our care and God's care are two
totally different things. We're worried, we're cast down,
we have a burden on us, we can't figure out what to do, we just We call it getting stressed out
and being anxious and all these different things we call it.
It's our care, that's what it is, how we care. God's care is
not like that. He doesn't get anxious about
anything. He has all sufficiency to care for us. He has all sufficiency
to do what His people need and use everything in our life to
do it. It's a totally different care.
That's why He's telling us, cast your care upon Him. He careth for you. Christ took the care of satisfying
divine justice for His people. He took the care of representing
His people. The Lord says, I'm going to create
this people, and they're going to fall into sin, and they're
going to be corrupt, and they're going to be defiled, and they're
going to hate you. And the only way I can receive
them and do it in a holy manner is if somebody fully takes their
place, really takes their place, in all points being made like
them. And Christ said, put that care
on me, I'll take it. And he was made flesh like unto
his brethren and made of a woman like unto his brethren. He was
made to come up under a mother and a father just like his brethren.
He was made to walk this earth under the law like his brethren.
And then he went and was made sin like unto his brethren. and made a curse for his brethren.
He took the care. He took all our care. Everything
that we have to be anxious and worried about, you know the things
we are really anxious and worried about are not the things we ought
to be anxious and worried about. We ought to be worried about
our sin and we ought to be worried about our standing with God and
how God receives us. And most of the time we are worried
about something in this world that It falls into the category
of those things where the Lord said, that will be added to you. And usually we are not anxious
and concerned over seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
That is what we ought to be concerned about. That is what He took. He took everything that concerns
us in our standing with God, in making us accepted of God,
He took the whole thing. Christ took it and He accomplished
it. The care of your eternal justification was upon Christ. Cast that on Him. If you are
concerned about that, cast it into His hand. Christ took the
care of making His people holy. If you're hearing men tell you,
you've got to do something to make yourself holy and it's got
you under a burden and under the law and you're anxious about
it, cast that burden on Christ. He's the holiness of His people.
He's the only one that works holiness in His people. He took
the care of guiding and protecting every step we take in this world. He's not just going to save His
people on the cross, He's going to have to, we're going to have
to come into this world and be born, and we're going to have
to be carried through our entire life, we're going to have to
be brought to faith in Him, preserved through all that, and then at
last raised out of the grave and made to join Him in glory.
Christ took the care of every single step. Every step. All cares we should cast on Christ. He cares about where am I going
to get money? I'm down to just this small amount. I got nothing else. Where am
I going to get it? Christ has to care of that for His people.
The care of our earthly needs for ourselves and for our families.
That's a legitimate care. Christ took care of the whole
thing. Cast your burden on His hand and He cares for you. What about the care of my business? My job? Christ has the care of
that too. What about the care of my children?
Christ has the care of that too. What about the care of His church
and His kingdom? Christ has the care of the whole
thing. Everything. So with that call to humility
comes the call of faith, but not only that, there comes a
call of vigilance. Vigilance. Look here. Once we
cast our care on Christ, then it's not time to just be careless
after that. Look here in verse 8. Be sober,
be vigilant, Because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh
about seeking whom he may devour, whom resists steadfast in the
faith. The devil is a real enemy. He is real and we are no match
for him at all. And if you think you are too
strong in faith to be beguiled by the devil, you have already
started being beguiled by him. That is what beguiling is. You
don't know you have been tricked. but he's God's roaring lion. He's a roaring lion. You can
imagine trying to take on a roaring lion. He said he walks about
like that, but he's God's roaring lion. He can only seek whom he
may devour. He can't just devour when he
wants to. But knowing how God used the
devil to bring trials and how he uses the devil to correct
his saints, brethren, be sober. Be vigilant, be steadfast in
the faith. Lately, several of us have been
talking about this, about how you come in and you hear the
gospel preached, and you're comforted, and you're strengthened, and
your heart's on fire for Christ. And we talk about how I wish
I could keep that at the forefront of my thoughts all the time when
I'm confronted by the things I come in contact with in the
world. That's what he's talking about here. Walking in the Spirit,
having that constantly on our minds. He says, be sober, be
serious minded about that. Be not careless and not carried
away by the stuff we have to do that takes our mind off of
Christ. And then he says, be vigilant.
That means it takes some effort to do what he is talking about.
That means keep that frame of mind and that heart all the time.
That is going to take some effort. What kind of effort? Bury yourself
in Christ, in His written Word, in His preached Word. Bury yourself
in Christ Himself so that He's what you're thinking on. He's
who you're looking to. He's who you're walking with.
You have Him at the forefront of your thoughts. And then He
says, and be steadfast in the faith. That's what we mean when
we say we always want to have that strength and that comfort
of Christ always at the front. Steadfast in that faith. Steadfast
beholding Christ. When the unkind word comes like
a fiery dart from the devil. You are not going to hear the
devil roar. It is just going to be an unkind word. Are we
going to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God? And cast
all our care on Christ? And answer with a soft answer.
Are we going to be offended and raise up in pride? That's exactly what the devil
wants. Exactly. He loves that. He don't care
if you're a drunk. He don't care if you're a prostitute. He don't care about any of that
stuff. What he's concerned about is turn away from Christ. That's
all he's concerned about. Whatever it is that does it,
he don't care what that is. He just wants you to turn from
Christ. What about when the roaring line comes and it's a voice of
some angry foe and he's roaring against me? I want to have the
songs of Zion so much in my heart and have my ears tuned to songs
of grace so much that when I hear that roaring line, it's nothing
more than just a mosquito buzzing around my ear. I want to be steadfast in the
faith, be looking to Christ, thinking on Christ, singing of
Christ, casting our care on Christ. It's not our faith that's going
to do it. We're not talking about be steadfast in the faith so
you can walk around bragging on your faith. No, it's the object
of our faith we're talking about. It's Christ Himself who can make
us resist the devil. He's our strength. He's our shield. He's our defender. He is the
one that the devil cannot come up against anymore. And as you
suffer these things, when you are in your trials and you are
going, always do this. This is part of vigilance and
being sober minded and being steadfast in the faith. Always
remember that your brethren are suffering too. He says there
in verse 9, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. Another form of a
deceptive pride, and if the devil can't get us these other ways,
this is what he wants to do right here. He wants to get you to
feeling sorry for yourself that nobody is suffering what you
are suffering. God is being unfair to you, making you suffer longer
than you should, making you suffer more than you should. Making
you suffer in a way that your brethren don't suffer. And we
get so proud of our suffering. You listen to old people talk.
I want to tell you their ailments and next we're going to top that
with their ailments. We'll be proud of our trials. There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. Every one of us who believe
here, brethren, are all suffering. We're all suffering. Some from
the same thing. But we're all suffering. The
same afflictions are accomplished in you, brethren. There's an
accomplishment being done. No man should be moved by these
afflictions, Paul said. For yourselves know that we're
appointed thereunto. God's appointed this. wherein
you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be." It's
a need be. You're in heaviness through manifold
temptations. Don't look at anything you go
through and think, nobody suffered this. Nobody suffered as bad
as I've suffered. Christ did. And if we see Christ,
then our afflictions are light afflictions. They're light afflictions
in comparison to Him. And so lastly, He calls us to
patience. Look here, verse 10. There is something being accomplished
through the trial, so we have to wait. What are we waiting
on? For Him to exalt us in due time.
Watch. But the God of all grace, who
has called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus. Just look
at that first. The God of all grace. What a
name for Him. The God of all grace. It's all
of grace. Everything that's happened to
me is of grace. Everything He's done for me is of grace. And
He is the God of all that grace, including the trial. We should
look at the trial as God's grace to us. A free favor given to
us by God. Our suffering and our tears,
all of grace. He has called us to eternal glory
by Christ Jesus. That means you have eternal life. He is not going to let you perish.
You have eternal life. The eternal glory is by Christ.
When He entered the covenant, He promised to bring us to the
Father. He is not going to let you not be brought to the Father.
He said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast him out. He is
going to keep His people. He satisfied God, brethren. That's
our eternal security. That we have eternal glory and
we won't ever be cast out. But remember now, He does this
in due time. It's His time. And this is where
we lose our patience. This is where we get lifted up
in pride. He's going to do this in His time. Look at verse 10. To God of all grace who has called
us into His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you
suffered a while. See that? We are going to have
to suffer a while. How long? However long He is
appointed. We don't want to miss out on any of the suffering because
we don't want to miss out on the accomplishment. And both
are necessary. He is going to accomplish something
through this. Ten, what's he accomplishing? The God of all
grace who's called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
after that you've suffered a while, make you perfect. That word is
unite together, make fit, make sound, fully equipped. That's
what he's doing for us. He's going to establish, that
means to set fast, to turn you resolutely in one direction,
pointed to one, in one heading, Christ. After you suffered a
while, He'll strengthen you. He's going to make you strong. When did Paul say I'm strong?
When I'm weak. That's why you've got to suffer
a while. When I'm weak, then I'm strong. When I don't have
any power in me to do anything, when I can't lift up my hand
in pride and put my hand to it, that's when I'm strong. Christ's
power. And He says, and He's going to
settle you. All of this that He is doing, everything is in
Christ, everything is for Christ, everything is by Christ, and
He is going to settle you firm upon Christ your foundation. So that you can't be moved, you
can't be turned from Him, you are set on Christ the Lord, immovable
on the rock, immovable on the foundation. That is what the
trial is for. And what are we going to do?
What are we going to do? The first hour He brought you
through trial and showed you your sins, and humbled you, and
made you cast all your care on Christ, and made you just never
want to lose that fire for Him, and you wanted to be vigilant,
you wanted to walk with Him. The first time He did that, you
said this. And every trial after that, you've
said this right here. And when this whole trial is
over, when we're done and we've walked this whole way, we have
to go through this wilderness and we're with Him in glory,
we're going to be saying the same thing. And here it is. To
Him be glory and dominion forever and forever. Amen. That's what
it's for. That's what it's for. He's not
going to share His glory with another. And He's going to bring
us to glory only in Him. All right, Brother Art. All right, everyone. Our final hymn
is going to be hymn